(CNN)A man wielding a machete stormed a restaurant in Columbus, Ohio, and attacked several people before he was killed by police, authorities said Thursday.

The suspect was the only one killed. Nobody inside the Nazareth restaurant and deli said they knew him, according to police.

“(He) immediately began swinging a machete at customers and employees inside,” Columbus police Sgt. Rich Weiner said. “There was no rhyme or reason as to who he was going after as soon as he walked in, according to some of the witnesses.”

Police have tentatively identified the suspect but would not reveal his name or age.

“Right now there’s nothing that leads us to believe that this is anything but just a random attack,” Weiner said.

Karen Bass was inside the restaurant when it all happened.

“He came through the front door and then started just systematically hitting people,” she told CNN affiliate WSYX. “I thought it was a personal thing, and then he just started down the row hitting everybody.”

Four people were injured and transported to the hospital.

One victim who was in critical condition underwent surgery and is now “stable,” Weiner said.

The suspect was seen 30 to 45 minutes earlier entering the restaurant and speaking with an employee. Police would not discuss details of that conversation.

He left, came back at around 6 p.m. and then attacked a man and woman at a booth just inside the door, Weiner said.

Two men immediately ran out and called 911 while another engaged in a “physical altercation” with the suspect. Some patrons started throwing chairs.

An employee then “grabbed something from behind the register” and stopped the attack, according to Weiner.

Investigators are looking into whether the machete-wielding man who slashed four people in a Columbus, Ohio, restaurant attacked the eatery in the mistaken belief that the owner was Jewish, sources told NBC News on Friday.

The owner, Hany Baransi, is actually an Arab Christian from Haifa, Israel, his daughter said.

The attacker — identified by several NBC News law enforcement sources as Mohamed Barry — had asked a worker at the Nazareth Restaurant and Deli where the owner was from, investigators said.

“Obviously we were targeted because there’s a whole bunch of businesses around here,” Baransi told the Columbus Dispatch. “I’m the only foreigner.”

The suspect, identified as Mohamed Barry, 30, according to Franklin County Coroner Dr. Anahi Ortiz, was in a law enforcement database which includes names potentially related to terrorism, sources said. Being in the database would have flagged him if he came in contact with local authorities.

Four victims — three men and one woman — were hospitalized after the attack, police said.

William Foley, 54, was in critical but stable condition today, police said, while Gerald Russell, 43, and Debbie Russell, 43, were in stable condition today. The last victim, Neil McMeekin, 43, has been treated and released, police said today.

The suspected attacker has a Somali background, and it is believed he might have traveled to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates in 2012, CBS News reported. In addition, law enforcement officials are concerned that ‘this incident has the hallmarks of the type of so-called ‘lone wolf’ terrorist attack that they have been working to stop,’ CBS News reported.

The only way it can be stopped is banning Muslims from coming into the U.S. Vote wisely.